Cargando…

Dramatic niche shifts and morphological change in two insular bird species

Colonizations of islands are often associated with rapid morphological divergence. We present two previously unrecognized cases of dramatic morphological change and niche shifts in connection with colonization of tropical forest-covered islands. These evolutionary changes have concealed the fact tha...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Alström, Per, Jønsson, Knud A., Fjeldså, Jon, Ödeen, Anders, Ericson, Per G. P., Irestedt, Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society Publishing 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4448822/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26064613
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.140364
_version_ 1782373768064139264
author Alström, Per
Jønsson, Knud A.
Fjeldså, Jon
Ödeen, Anders
Ericson, Per G. P.
Irestedt, Martin
author_facet Alström, Per
Jønsson, Knud A.
Fjeldså, Jon
Ödeen, Anders
Ericson, Per G. P.
Irestedt, Martin
author_sort Alström, Per
collection PubMed
description Colonizations of islands are often associated with rapid morphological divergence. We present two previously unrecognized cases of dramatic morphological change and niche shifts in connection with colonization of tropical forest-covered islands. These evolutionary changes have concealed the fact that the passerine birds madanga, Madanga ruficollis, from Buru, Indonesia, and São Tomé shorttail, Amaurocichla bocagii, from São Tomé, Gulf of Guinea, are forest-adapted members of the family Motacillidae (pipits and wagtails). We show that Madanga has diverged mainly in plumage, which may be the result of selection for improved camouflage in its new arboreal niche, while selection pressures for other morphological changes have probably been weak owing to preadaptations for the novel niche. By contrast, we suggest that Amaurocichla's niche change has led to divergence in both structure and plumage.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4448822
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher The Royal Society Publishing
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-44488222015-06-10 Dramatic niche shifts and morphological change in two insular bird species Alström, Per Jønsson, Knud A. Fjeldså, Jon Ödeen, Anders Ericson, Per G. P. Irestedt, Martin R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) Colonizations of islands are often associated with rapid morphological divergence. We present two previously unrecognized cases of dramatic morphological change and niche shifts in connection with colonization of tropical forest-covered islands. These evolutionary changes have concealed the fact that the passerine birds madanga, Madanga ruficollis, from Buru, Indonesia, and São Tomé shorttail, Amaurocichla bocagii, from São Tomé, Gulf of Guinea, are forest-adapted members of the family Motacillidae (pipits and wagtails). We show that Madanga has diverged mainly in plumage, which may be the result of selection for improved camouflage in its new arboreal niche, while selection pressures for other morphological changes have probably been weak owing to preadaptations for the novel niche. By contrast, we suggest that Amaurocichla's niche change has led to divergence in both structure and plumage. The Royal Society Publishing 2015-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4448822/ /pubmed/26064613 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.140364 Text en © 2015 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Biology (Whole Organism)
Alström, Per
Jønsson, Knud A.
Fjeldså, Jon
Ödeen, Anders
Ericson, Per G. P.
Irestedt, Martin
Dramatic niche shifts and morphological change in two insular bird species
title Dramatic niche shifts and morphological change in two insular bird species
title_full Dramatic niche shifts and morphological change in two insular bird species
title_fullStr Dramatic niche shifts and morphological change in two insular bird species
title_full_unstemmed Dramatic niche shifts and morphological change in two insular bird species
title_short Dramatic niche shifts and morphological change in two insular bird species
title_sort dramatic niche shifts and morphological change in two insular bird species
topic Biology (Whole Organism)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4448822/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26064613
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.140364
work_keys_str_mv AT alstromper dramaticnicheshiftsandmorphologicalchangeintwoinsularbirdspecies
AT jønssonknuda dramaticnicheshiftsandmorphologicalchangeintwoinsularbirdspecies
AT fjeldsajon dramaticnicheshiftsandmorphologicalchangeintwoinsularbirdspecies
AT odeenanders dramaticnicheshiftsandmorphologicalchangeintwoinsularbirdspecies
AT ericsonpergp dramaticnicheshiftsandmorphologicalchangeintwoinsularbirdspecies
AT irestedtmartin dramaticnicheshiftsandmorphologicalchangeintwoinsularbirdspecies